Gamecocks thump Shabanie

Innocent Kurira in BulawayoChicken Inn ……………………….(1) 3Shabanie Mine ……………………….0FORMER champions Chicken Inn put up a polished performance as they beat 10-man Shabanie Mine at Luveve yesterday.The victory ensured that the Gamecocks remain unbeaten after four games in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.

Chicken Inn opened the scoring through an Obadiah Tarumbwa header 21 minutes into the game from a corner.Kudzai Chideu flicked the ball into the path of a well-positioned Tarumbwa who made no mistake from close range.The hosts then doubled their lead after 61 minutes through defender Divine Lunga. The roving left-back headed home after connecting with a well-taken Wellington Kamudyariwa corner.

Striker Darryl Nyandoro got the hosts a third in optional time after tapping home a cross from exciting midfielder Xolani Ndlovu, who made a beautiful run on the left before setting up an unmarked Nyandoro inside the box.

Shabanie Mine finished the game with 10 men after Polyester Shoko was sent for an early shower after receiving his marching orders 57 minutes into the game for punching Tarumbwa in an off the ball incident. Chicken Inn were forced to make two injury-inspired substitutions after Simon Munawa and George Majika succumbed to the visitors’ harsh challenges.Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas slammed Shabanie Mine’s physical approach to the game.

“It’s an excellent result, the boys played really well against a physical side. We have a number of our players that got knocks, maybe it was their game plan to take out our skilful players, I don’t know. They took out Munawa and Majika maybe it was their game plan.”

“Munawa has to go for stitches while Majika is a concern. He has to go for a scan on his leg. Hopefully he recovers soon. Besides that l think our ball circulation was good, we were very compact and did not allow them to play which was good. I think the victory is a confidence booster going forward. Our next fixture is an away game so we just have to make sure that we are focused and go into these away games with the right mentality,” said Antipas.

Shabanie coach Takesure Chiragwi felt the game had been balanced despite the defeat.“It was a balanced game, it is unfortunate that we got that red card, the referee knows the laws of the game better than l do so l trust that he made the right decision. I personally do not know what happened. We are not too worried about losing to Chicken Inn remember we have a very young side and l believe we did very well, we are on a rebuilding phase so we just have to bounce back from this defeat,” Chiragwi said.